For many Peninsula residents over the past 26 years, the highlight of the holiday season has been a trip to Belmont’s Notre Dame de Namur University for a musical version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

The current production, “The Gift,” is a gift that keeps on giving. The Dec. 7 gala opening night tickets fund the production. The rest of the run is free, a gift to the community.

Attendees get into the giving spirit by bringing donations of canned goods, new toys and cash. To date, more than 40 tons of non-perishable food and over 25,000 toys have been contributed. Social service organizations distribute the items to families in need, throughout surrounding communities.

Michael B. Elkins, chair of the university’s department of theater and dance, has, from the beginning, portrayed Scrooge. He’s also part of the team directing the show.

About a third of the 80 cast members are current or former students, faculty or staff. Many of the performers have professional stage experience.

In 1985, the school launched its annual holiday show by presenting a musical with Leslie Bricusse songs. When the rights were pulled, they offered a variation on that, titling it “The Music of Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol.'”

The current show, with Alan Menken’ music, was originally unveiled in New York in 1994. Matthew Mattei, music/vocal director of Notre Dame’s productions, suggested it to Elkins.

Elkins recalls, “Matt said, ‘You really should give a listen to this one. It’s a really interesting, different version.’ So we did and we took a big gulp and a huge leap of faith, after our 20th anniversary, and switched to this. This will be our sixth year with it.”

“The Gift” offers a fresh take on the classic Christmas tale. Elkins says, “This is a little more loosely based. It takes some liberties with some of the ghosts. The ghost of Christmas future transitions from a ‘blind, old hag,’ as she’s called, one of the street people, evolving like a beautiful butterfly, from this bent-over hag into this gorgeous dancer in a bright, white costume. That’s probably the biggest difference, not the dark, tall specter, silent, with the finger outstretched kind of ghost people remember.

“And the show moves differently. It moves like a freight train, in terms of speed. Once it starts going, it’s a fast ride. The performance, including intermission, is a little under two hours.”

Elkins had made some adjustments to his portrayal of Scrooge. “He’s certainly still a grinch, but he’s far more active, physically, in this one. This Scrooge has different moments, and they often occur as we’re moving through a song. We work hard to make sure that we pinpoint and focus, so the audience really gets what just happened, because, often, it happens within a lyric, rather than within the dialogue that Dickens wrote so well, that was so wonderful to take your time with. This one just moves faster. So it’s just got to be a little quicker on its feet … and so does Scrooge.

“It’s very rewarding, because, when you get to the point where you’ve done it for 26 years, it becomes almost an alter ego. But you don’t want to get complacent about projecting or amplifying the same gestures over and over in exactly the same way. So this production brought a welcome, completely new challenge.”

The songs are appealing. “The Menken music is one of the reasons we chose this version,” Elkins says. “It’s a lot like many of the things he’s written in his Disney musicals.” Such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin” and “Tangled.”

Eight years ago, a TV movie of the musical aired, starring Kelsey Grammer. “The movie was a little cartoonish for us, so we made it a little darker than some of the vaudeville jokes that were in there. We’ve made it into our own. And it has pleased the audiences. People have grown up, literally, for 20 years, with the Bricusse-based music. Now they’ve grown to love a whole new score. There are some really charming moments with it.”

People remain as fascinated with Dickens’ story today as they were when he introduced his novel in 1843 .

Elkins says, “As the nephew in ‘Christmas Carol’ says, there is this one time every year, this one day, everybody just stops and agrees to get along. It’s like that story about the German and British soldiers coming out of their trenches and singing Christmas carols, on Christmas Eve during World War I.

“Human beings just need a couple of times a year they can count on where they can say, let’s just smile at someone we wouldn’t ordinarily notice and give something a little special, even if it’s just encouragement. It’s a great wake-up call for audiences and they certainly are moved by it. People come back year after year. We had a person who’d seen the show 26 years ago and came back last year with her first grandchild. Amazing”

The Notre Dame productions are meaningful for the cast members, as well. Elkins says, “We have a junior in our department now and she started out as one of the Cratchit children, many, many years ago. We have several people in the show who have grown up and come back and stayed with it. Scott Fish is playing Young Ebenezer, Scrooge’s younger self. And he actually was one of our first Tiny Tims. He has played an urchin and all sorts of roles throughout the years. He has been very successful in business, Yahoo and other places, but he, and his wife now, who is a dancer, come back year after year. Our theme with this show, because of the song that’s in it, is ‘A Place Called Home.’ That’s what we want it to be for both the audiences and the performers. We have families of volunteers, many of whom never set foot on stage, but who are essential to our success.”

The magic continues. “People enjoy bringing their neighbors and extended families. It’s an incredible, lavish production. The costuming is unbelievable. And we’ve raised funds over the years to make sure we could always improve our technological support, with our lighting and sound systems and snow machines. We want the impact to be as theatrical and Disney-esque, if you will, as it can be for people. We want them to have the complete ‘Ah-ha!’ moment. More than 100,000 people have attended over the years. That’s very inspiring to us. It get us through all the trials and tribulations we face.”

The gala opening is always a great evening. You can help keep this remarkable local Christmas miracle happening by buying tickets.

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